And yes, you should submit to another service if one states that you have a cleaned coin that looks pristine. I often do, and get grades, too.

I try to learn from mistakes made, best way to make experience work as positively as possible. Some of those early “experiences” were SGS and NNC slabs, what actually brought me to this page in the first place. FWIW, SGS is nice enough to include tabs on the side that a large screwdriver can get into and open with a solid twist on both sides. The NNC ones, more similar to PCGS holders went pretty easy when I clamped down a pair of channel locks on one of the upper corners, paper/description end of the holder, then used the same flathead to pry the rest of the way. Didn’t use the screwdriver to pry it all the way, just enough that I could finish opening them by hand once my gloves were on. I opened the top ends in all cases to minimize the chance of anything getting into the coin or the coin dropping out, when I opened the slab the bottom half was completely in the palm of one hand, so the coin wouldn’t drop out anywhere other than onto the gloved hand. Now to submit them to PCGS and hope they haven’t been fiddled with, though the surfaces look intact.

As to documentation before sending a coin in, in theory have a solid enough case if you photographed the coin, then put it straight into the box you were shipping in, drawing some unique marker in various places by hand in a few places on the tape when it’s sealed, and videotape the whole thing, though that’s certainly a heck of a lot of work. At the time I had the issue with NGC I hadn’t been set up well enough to be able to photograph the coin before sending it in. I put the experience to work by getting the necessary equipment soon after things happening.

The cracking out went great, thanks to some of the info here. The SGS labels are actually stickers, I can only imagine what sort of chemistry is involved and the effect on the coins in those holders. Fingers crossed, I know there’s no way they’re coming back with the same grades as were on the slabs, hopefully they come back gradable though and I can continue to chalk them up to a less expensive lesson than it could have been.

Thank you so much for adding to the discussion. You seem like a very experienced hobbyist, and voting with your pocketbook is the best way to address some of these concerns. I might have been more persistent in getting some kind of response.

I know it seems like a conspiracy theory when we believe a new coin was returned from the one that we sent in. But it must happen, given the number of submissions that arise. Perhaps I will deal with this in a new column in the future, concerning what a submitter should do when she or he feels this has happened.

I would recommend taking pictures of submitted coins, but there’s no way for you to prove that is the coin that you sent in. Nonetheless, it does show due diligence.

I have been satisfied with PCGS and do submit on occasion to NGC, although I send to ANACS more often. In my experience, PCGS is a wee more consistent; or perhaps, I just know their grading standards better than the others. They are somewhat different.

In any case, you have enriched the site with your comment. I wish you all the best.

Michael

Most distressingly, when I called NGC and explained that the coin that had come back had obvious marks that weren’t present on the original coin (calmly, I waited to call until I was calmed down as I know being geared up isn’t helpful in these situations) I was told the person I needed to talk to was out of the office and would call me back. After about a week of not hearing back, I called again, was told the same thing, and as of this writing have never heard from them. As a result of that rather startling demonstration of their interest in customer issues, I let my NGC membership lapse when it came up for renewal and moved my business over to PCGS, the only course I had available as I didn’t have enough documentation/images/etc to pursue the matter through other channels.

At this point I avoid adding NGC holdered coins to my collection whenever I can manage it, which is probably an extreme reaction, but I’m a fan of voting with my wallet, and I’d rather not make a purchase of a coin that they got money to grade. I had been trying to put together a grading set or at least partial grading set of near dates, and have representatives of much of it in NGC holders, which I’m considering selling as a set, given the bad feelings about it. I’ve heard the occasional similar story about PCGS (just the wrong coin part, not the total customer service failure part) and understand it’s a risk, hopefully that doesn’t happen to me with them.